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I went to a meeting one time where all the adults were on the floor doing the Bacon Dance and allegedly speaking in tongues. Once they had wore themselves out a little and had regained their upright posture, I asked them all very loudly.

"What in the world is wrong with you people?, have some bloody dignity!"

When questioned by myself, some were just miming what the others were doing so that they weren't left out, or passed by. There is nothing worse than when the holy spirit chooses not to infuse some, but does so for others.

Those that don't get their jesus on and Bacon Dance, have obviously had a dignity infusion.

The way that I setup this thread was a bit in-your-face/tongue-in-cheek, but I think there is definitely a psychological discussion to be had here.

To compliment your experience, I was once involved in something similar during a hypnotist's show. He opened it up to the floor for any volunteers to come forward, so I ran up there with a lot of curiosity about what it was like to be hypnotized. I was open-minded, curious, and willing to participate. I was joined on the stage by about 30-40 others. *fast forward* it got to the point in his setup or whatever where everyone around me was hypnotized. They all thought they were fishing and reeling in a monster that was tugging at their imaginary fishing lines with great force. I just stood there, baffled at what everyone around me was doing. Clearly, I wasn't susceptible to being brainwashed/hypnotized. I looked at the hypnotist with a confused look on my face, and he subtly gestured at two or three of us to go and sit back down in the audience, aware that it wasn't working on us. I'll admit, for about 10 second, I pretended I had caught a big fish too, just to not be out of place up there. The ridiculous feeling I had inside for acting my way through it, knowing I was just fooling myself, won out. I enjoyed the rest of the show, but I still think about why I just couldn't be hypnotized. I wonder if it is the same state of mind that led me to stop believing in God. In a sense, it got to the point where the expectation to believe was, for me, akin to pretending to be hypnotized just to blend in and not point out the ludicrousness (weakness?) of those around you. I don't mean for that to sound indirectly harsh, but it does.

Though I can agree with the idea that culture can affect who you are, there is some obvious flaws here.

One, in India and other countries mentioned there are more than one religion, so perhaps to be fair I would have used a microcosm rather than a macrocosm of an entire country to explain the origins of someones beliefs.

Two, if he is so confvnced the mind is so acceptable to hallucination and this guy on stage must be hallucinating, how would he know if it is not him who is hallucinating?

Three, if we look at the psychological study of religion, it is not based on hallucinating, Freud explains religion as a child / parent relationship (surprise) Otto explains it as a need to understand the "awe" we feel at sometime in our life (whether it is caused by looking at a natural wonder, an unexplained event, or a near death experience) Jung explains religion as "a noble human response to the depths of reality and to its complexity.And the list goes on and on.

Human beings are so easily infected by other human beings. The dot.com collapse, PT Barnum, and shysters throughout history tell us that, yet we refuse to remember logic.

As humans we are looking for quick love, quick medicine, quick weight loss, quick wealth, and quick spirituality, and above all else immediate acceptance by others, none of which are very achievable in any haste.

As humans we are looking for quick love, quick medicine, quick weight loss, quick wealth, and quick spirituality, and above all else immediate acceptance by others, none of which are very achievable in any haste.

agreed, but this is a more modern issue with humans, and can be said about science or religion, atheism or Christianity.

in someone's haste to explain the unexpainable it is easy to say they must be hallucinating or because of the lack of empirical evidence it must not be true.

I would hazard a guess, that this man that is pleading his case, was influenced at exactly the correct time in his life, and probably when he was at his lowest point.

When you reach the bottom, and the hand that is offered from another is the hand of jesus, then you will refuse to entertain anything else as the reason or your rise from the ashes.

Now, a person at the depths of their depravity, when offered an non-religious hand-up comes out of their funk at the lowest point in their lives, they identify with the individual that helped them, and their own hard work and merit.

I will bet dollars to donuts, that this man in the audience in all his sincerity has walked with the holy spirit because he came from one of two sources only.

1. Complete and utter re-born christian indoctrination as either a child or a fragile adult

2. Self-Loathing and depravity, and the way up was with another form on indoctrination by another individuals or groups of individuals through god.

Allow me to give you an example: My Father-In-Law is Jewish and practicing and living in Florida since 1973. He was born and raised in Rochester, NY. We all know that Rochester has real crappy weather in Winter, snowing one day, raining the next, freezing bad weather.

Jews since about 1936 through the movement of the Jewish Gangster from New York and New Jersey, spent Winters in Florida. They were assuaged by the Jewish Gangsters that set up casinos, dog-tracks, horse racing etc. World travelled quickly, and soon within 20 years, you have a ton of Jews descending on Florida, and many Jewish retirees also.

Eventually every 2nd Jew has a Florida connection. My Father-In-Law tells me, he chose Florida because the weather was better, I argue that he chose Florida because the place was full of other Jews.

I caught him in his lie recently, as his last 4 USA vacations have all been to areas not just where the weather or the scenery is nice, but to new places that are almost plagued with American Jewish tourists and nobody else.

Humans are creatures of consequence based on what somebody else does, nothing more nothing less.